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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá

Colombia goes to the polls in historic election that could see turn to left

A man reads campaign literature for the leftwing presidential ticket of Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez in the Comuna 13 neighbourhood in Medellín on Friday.
A man reads campaign literature for the leftwing presidential ticket of Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez in Medellín on Friday. Photograph: Joaquín Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images

Colombians head to the polls today in a presidential election that may give the conservative South American country its first ever leftwing leader and first black vice-president.

Frontrunner Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla fighter and senator, faces several rivals, but his main challenger is Federico Gutiérrez, the former mayor of Medellín – Colombia’s second city – who leads a rightwing coalition with close ties to the incumbent government of President Iván Duque.

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